DETROIT – Electric vehicles are easier on the environment than their gasoline-powered counterparts, but their long charging times and the scarcity of charging stations can make life hard for the eco-conscious motorists who drive them.
Now help may be on the horizon. Scientists are working to develop refillable, or so-called flow, batteries that can be refueled in minutes at a vast network of converted gas stations. It’s a shift that could make electric vehicles (EVs) more attractive to drivers who are wary of long charging times.
“You drive 300 miles, drain your tank and pump in new [liquid] — as long as it would take to fill your car with gasoline — and drive off,” says John Cushman, a professor of earth and atmospheric sciences and mathematics at Purdue and a leading researcher on liquid battery technology.
Lee Cronin, a chemist at the University of Glasgow in Scotland and another leading researcher on the technology, agrees. He says flow batteries “would turn EVs into the cultural equivalent of a fuel car. Your range anxiety would be gone. And you have the existing pipe infrastructure for moving liquids around” — a reference to the service stations now in existence that could be retrofitted to pump the battery liquid instead of gasoline.
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This is a great idea if we are all agreed to do away with the environmental benefits of driving an EV and just drive them for fun. Manufacturing and recycling electrolyte takes energy. Delivering charged electrolyte and picking up used electrolyte will require energy for a fleet of vehicles that have to be built, driven and maintained. The electrodes will require increased mining and manufacturing, which also uses more energy. This is an insanely inefficient waste of resources, just for perceived convenience. This system is less of a battery and more of a fuel cell.
Battery/Super-Capacitor hybrid systems will soon make recharge times inconsequential. Even H2 fuel cells or CNG/BEV hybrids would be more efficient and have a smaller environmental foot print.